Bangaii baby photos

["Umm fish?"]

Thanks!

Sounds like you might have hydroids. They are pretty common. I would think that Banggais are really too big to be prey for them, but the hydroids will eat all the BBS and reproduce like crazy.

There's a picture here of the medusa stage: http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums/general-marine/2567.htm

If they start to be trouble you can scoop out the Banggai fry and switch them to a new tank, trying not to get any of the hydroids in the scooped water. Then when you're done bleach the old larvae tank. If you want to be really conscientious, neutralize the bleach with one of the aquarium bleach removers they sell for freshwater before you dump the cleaning water so that the bleach doesn't get into the water supply.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Sorry that it's been a long while for updates. Things continue along about the same: I lost the female adult Banggai but the male is now lord of the feed trough and the kids continue to grow. I can't get a count of the fish in the trough any longer because they've become very wary of me, but I've still seen at least four or five and there may well still be seven. And now that there's only one adult fish left in the tank, the kids have now taken over the area under the algae filter. Too many places to hide for me to really enjoy them!

The juvenile that I pulled because of aggression issues--it was getting picked on--still seems to be doing fine, although it's not growing nearly as fast as the juveniles in the trough. That leads me to believe that the ones in the trough are, in fact, getting substantial nutrition from incidental plankton.

Photos of the small juvenile, day 83:

Thanks!

 

["Umm fish?"]

Day 109, and it all seems to be going well. They all seem to find frozen mysis particularly delectable now!

One of the fish still in the watering trough:

And the one in the 10 gal.:

Here's what that last one's home looks like, for size reference:

 

[Jay180reef]

Wow, great breeding setup! I'll be borrowing your larvae refuge design for my Bangaiis!

 

["Umm fish?"]

Actually, I was an idea I had for trying sexy shrimp. The first chamber was for adults. The first overflowed to the second chamber that has a kreisel-type flow to try to collect the larvae. But, the mesh on the second chamber overflow was too small and kept clogging within a couple of hours and I wound up never getting any larvae from the adults anyway.

But, it's working really well for this little guy. He's made his way to all three chambers so far. Now he's in the tiny third chamber. Sigh.

 

[IFbettas]

This is a great thread! I just got a couple banggais a week ago, but now they have been fighting so I had to seperate them. I will try to get more once I find some, so I can get some pairs and breed them like you did. I think it's great that you're breeding an endangered species!

 

["Umm fish?"]

Thanks! The Banggais do try to kill each other if there aren't enough places where they can get out of line-of-sight of each other. In fact, anything more than a pair in a small- to medium-sized tank winds up with dead fish. So, line up some buddies who can take the fish you can't use....

Good luck!

 

["Umm fish?"]

Well, it looks like I've gotten 5 males and 1 female from that brood to adult. Counting the adult female I lost, I'm back to one pair, two of my F1 siblings.

But, today is the first day of that male holding eggs!

 

[OceansParadise]

great thread i just was able to catch 7 of my new little ones. I noticed that they were swimming in his mouth so i pulled him out and as soon as i did he spit the eggs right out in to my net breeder. Have u tried crushed food from the start or is it better to use bbs?

 

["Umm fish?"]

Congratulations! I used nothing but frozen foods but they were in a tank with a _lot_ of plankton.

 

[OceansParadise]

what types of frozen did u use i have rods original, rods coral, frozen bbs, or frozen bbs any recomendations

 

["Umm fish?"]

I would add copepods (Cyclopeeze) to that, but that's a pretty good list. I think water motion is key (I made a laminar, circular motion around the tank) as well as leaving some obstructions in the water so the babies can get out of the current when they get tired.

 

[OceansParadise]

thanks for the info, i will try to get some copepods also. till then hatched bbs seems to be working